PENN YAN, N.Y. — A buckwheat-based alternative milk is launching in Whole Foods Markets across the country this month, part of an effort to bring the once-popular crop back to American fields and tables, The Associated Press reported.
Paige Hansen developed the milk after dealing with a dairy allergy. She spent about two years traveling between her home in California and the Cornell Food Venture Center in Geneva, New York, before partnering with New Barn Organics. They are also making a buckwheat milk powder that could be used in snacks, crackers and other foods.
“That diversity of crop in the field, I think we should be eating the same way with our diets,” Hansen said.
Buckwheat was a popular food crop in the U.S. until the mid-20th century, when farmers switched to higher-yield crops like corn, soybeans and wheat. Today, it is mostly planted as a cover crop to suppress weeds and rebuild soil between other harvests.
Supporters say it can also store carbon in its roots and reduce fertilizer runoff when fields would otherwise be bare.
“If we can grow a valuable crop it’s a lot more likely to become part of the system than if we’re growing it because there’s a subsidy payment,” said Klaas Martens, an organic farmer who has grown buckwheat for about 40 years.
Worldwide, about 2 million tons of buckwheat were produced in 2024, about half the amount of two decades ago, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. Corn production reached about 1.2 billion tons.
China, Russia and Ukraine grow the most buckwheat. Despite its name, its seeds are more like a fruit than a grain, and it is the main ingredient in Japanese soba noodles.
Sources: Associated Press via KTAR News. Thee Arizona Times uses AI-assisted reporting reviewed against the sources listed.
Photo: NPS Photo / Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
